The educational activities for the short program in plant health will last 5 days. The program will combine classroom lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on activities in the plant health laboratories of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, as well as field visits. In addition to general training in plant health and the role of Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM), the program will introduce the concept and basic principles of integrated control, the history and rationale for IPDM, its pillars, control techniques, as well as its advantages and disadvantages. IPDM options such as host plant resistance, cultural practices, the use of chemicals and biopesticides, biological control agents, and semiochemicals used in IPDM programs will be included in this course. Finally, several IPDM case studies will be discussed during the course.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the principles and pillars of integrated pest management (IPM).
• Provide examples of various pest control techniques.
• Understand the interactions between plants and pathogens and their application in plant protection.
• Identify different families of phytopathogenic fungi and insect orders using macroscopic and microscopic observations.
• Perform screening methods for antagonistic biological control agents.
• Characterize pathogen-specific molecular tools for plant pathogens.